The baking or roasting of dressed and stuffed poultry in the heated atmosphere of an oven or the equivalent necessarily involves the considerable difficulty of bringing the cooking of the interior meat and the stuffing to completion substantially simultaneously with the cooking of the outer surface meat. Unless this is accomplished the total product is not uniformly cooked, the inside being underdone even when the exterior has been overcooked. Frequently the only solution of the problem has been to effect a compromise, the cooking being continued until examination of the outer surface, which is the only portion capable of being inspected during the cooking, appears to be overdone sufficiently to warrant the conjecture that the interior is no longer unacceptably underdone.
Attempts have been made to solve the somewhat similar problem involved in baking large solid cuts of meat, such as hams. One such attempt provided a stout metal spike having a hollow axial bore and a plurality of perforations in its side wall and a sharp pointed end that could be removed after the spike had been driven through the center of the ham. Hot air during the ensuing baking was expected to pass through the bore of the spike and promote the cooking of the innermost meat.